NAMIC Conference Heading Back To New York: Sources

The annual NAMIC Conference is headed back to New York after struggling to draw attendees during this year's event in Denver during the Cable Connections Fall.

Sources close to the organization said the NCTA board -- which oversees the Cable Connections operations -- decided Wednesday to allow the 24th annual NAMIC Conference to be held in New York in 2010 and not in New Orleans next October as part of Cable Connections Fall week, which would include the CTAM and SCTE conferences.

Neither the NAMIC conference dates or the venue have been determined, according to sources.

NAMIC and NCTA officials both declined to comment on the matter.  

It was unclear at presstime whether the annual Walter Kaitz Foundation fundraising dinner would also return to New York in 2010.

For NAMIC, the move back to Manhattan would be welcome: The organization saw attendance for this year's conference in Denver drop more than 50%, compared to a record attendance of more than 800 for the 2008 Conference in New York.

NAMIC president Kathy Johnson said last month that traditionally 40% of the conference's constituents have come from New York City directly and about 60% from the east coast alone.

This year's Walter Kaitz Foundation fundraising dinner suffered a slight decline in attendance, although the dinner did raise more than $1million for programs promoting diversity within the industry.

Kaitz officials could not be reached for comment by presstime. 

R. Thomas Umstead

R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.